The present invention relates generally to hingeless ventilators used for ventilating enclosed air spaces.
Hingeless ventilators from Salem Vent International, Inc. of Salem, Virginia, are well known in the art, particularly in the trucking and vehicle industry. Exemplary hingeless ventilators are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,375,772; 3,760,707; 3,839,950; 4,452,129; and 5,766,068. Certain types of these hingeless ventilators are known as "two-way" ventilators in that the cover or closure member can be opened in one direction to draw air into the enclosed space, or opened in the opposite direction to exhaust air from the enclosed space. Other embodiments of the hingeless ventilator are known as "one-way" ventilators in that the closure or cover member can only be opened in one direction.
The hingeless ventilators have found wide applications in various industries, particularly the trucking and RV industry wherein the ventilators are used to ventilate enclosed cab or vehicle spaces, principally because of their ability to seal reliably with relatively simple mechanical structure. However, with such conventional hingeless ventilators, the operator had to manually open and close the cover member and this restricted the location of the hingeless ventilators to heights and positions that were readily accessible. Particularly with recreational vehicles, such as campers and the like, and truck cab sleeping compartments, it may be desirable to locate the ventilators on the ceiling or roof panels of the compartment or other inaccessible locations. This has not been practical with the conventional devices since they were not remotely actuatable.
The present invention relates to an improved hingeless ventilator incorporating a motor drive unit that can be remotely actuated.